Business Retention and Expansion – Healthy communities have strong, healthy businesses. As competition among communities for increasingly footloose businesses heats up, business retention programs have become the most popular economic development efforts of communities nation-wide. While retention programs emerged in response to business defections and the negative impacts those defections have on the local economy, they have increased in importance as communities recognized that real job growth over time comes from local business expansion. Surveys of U.S. economic development organizations rank it as the number one economic development activity.

Rural Economic Development – There is no single definition of rural economic development. Typically it is described in terms of its objectives: these are most commonly described as the creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of the quality of life in rural areas. Rural economic development can also be described as a process that influences the growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well-being of rural communities. For rural communities, the challenges are very different from those in urban areas. Small-scale, low-density settlement patterns make it more costly for rural communities and businesses to provide critical services.

Infrastructure – Infrastructure encompasses existing transportation, communication and utility networks. Rebuilding the physical infrastructure of a community improves the local business climate and is critical to the redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods. Infrastructure gets people to their jobs and goods and services to their markets. Many distressed neighborhoods suffer from inadequate infrastructure, decreasing their access to economic opportunities and their ability to integrate into wider city, national, and international markets. Programs to build roads, provide water and waste removal, and offer telecommunications services all bestow substantial economic benefits such as job and business creation and retention to a community. Additionally, modernizing physical infrastructure can help improve the image of a distressed neighborhood.

Development-Ready Community – A community that has taken steps to improve conditions to be more attractive for businesses and investment. These steps may be different for each individual community situation, but in all cases they should include joining in regional efforts to identify competitive assets and participating in the development and implementation of a strategic plan for regional competitiveness and economic growth.

Downtown Development – Downtown development is the promotion of development, redevelopment, and revitalization of the central business districts and adjacent areas in a city. Commercial and residential growth in the suburbs has contributed to the decline of downtown. Downtowns traditionally are the centers of both business and culture. Developing downtowns, therefore, involves a range of activities, including marketing for both business and tourist attraction, building or improving infrastructure, clean-up initiatives, property redevelopment and reuse, and retention programs. The purpose of these initiatives is to create an attractive environment to increase the number and variety of businesses downtown and bring in shoppers and tourists.

Distressed Community – A community where indicators of economic standing show significant weakness. These indicators may include such factors as unemployment, underemployment, home ownership rates, business formation rates, capital investment, changes in assessed valuations, percentage of substandard housing, out-migration and population loss now prevalent in some rural regions, and adverse impacts from rapid immigration prevalent in some border communities and regions.

What are your thoughts?
Do you believe our county or any of our communities are distressed? What about northwest Ohio? Or do you think we’re doing OK?
What steps would you take toward improving the local economy?

I don’t like ass kissers, flag wavers or team players. I like people who buck the system. Individualists. I often warn people: “Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, ‘There is no “I” in team.’ What you should tell them is, ‘Maybe not. But there is an “I” in independence, individuality and integrity.’” Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name. If they say, “We’re the So-and-Sos,” take a walk. And if, somehow, you must join, if it’s unavoidable, such as a union or a trade association, go ahead and join. But don’t participate; it will be your death. And if they tell you you’re not a team player, congratulate them on being observant.🙂

Nine years ago (March 7, 2005), Paulding Village enacted the following ordinance forbidding apartments or housing on the ground floor of business buildings in the downtown:

ORDINANCE NO. 1328-05
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE PRESENTLY EXISTING
ZONING CODE, SECTION 90.12 FOR THE VILLAGE OF PAULDING
AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY

Be it Ordained by the Village of Paulding, Ohio that the following is amended:

Section 1. Section 90-12 is hereby amended and Section 90.12(A) of the Zoning Ordinance is hereby enacted to read as follows: No persons shall use the ground floor of buildings for habitation or as a dwelling whether that person(s) rent(s) or own(s) the property in the following area: A nine block area in the Village of Paulding, Ohio which is described and surrounded by the following streets: Commencing at the intersection of Cherry Street and Harrison Street; then North on Caroline Street to the intersection of Cherry Street and Caroline Street; then East on Caroline Street to the intersection of Caroline Street and Water Street; then South on Water Street to the intersection of Water Street and Harrison Street; then West on Harrison Street to the point of beginning or the intersection of Harrison Street and Cherry Street.

Section 3. Any sections of this ordinance not consistent with the amendment herein are hereby repealed.

Section 4. This ordinance is an emergency measure necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, safety, and welfare due to said buildings are not presently constructed for human habitation at street level for dwellings for a renter or owner. And further, that said buildings create a condition that is neither safe nor conducive to human habitation in the Village of Paulding, Ohio.

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Coming Events

Meetings are open to the public
• Paulding County Commissioners in session 8am-4pm or until end of business on Mondays and Wednesdays, Room B-1, courthouse
• Paulding Village Council meetings 6:30pm on the first and third Mondays of each month, in council chambers